The grand plan for a Port Huron Casino complex: Will Gov. Granholm deliver Obama?

excerpted from a column by Mike Connell published on 1.11.09 in the Port Huron Times Herald:

...For a time, it appeared a casino might become the money-making engine.

In a deal put together a year ago by Gov. Jennifer Granholm, the Bay Mills Chippewa would build a casino-hotel on 22 acres at the foot of Court Street. Tribes don't pay property taxes, but Bay Mills agreed to fork over a share of casino revenues estimated at $30 million a year.

In exchange for the 22 acres, Acheson Ventures also would have taken a percentage of the casino's gross revenues.

The income stream would have built a permanent Maritime Center at Vantage Point. There also was talk of creating an Aquarium of the Great Lakes, a tourist draw similar to the National Aquarium on Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

Port Huron's congressional delegation pledged funds for a mile-long promenade on the river's edge from the Military Street Bridge to the Seaway Terminal, where the walkway would hook up with an extension of the Wadhams-to-Avoca hiking trail.

These ambitious plans attracted feelers from other developers, including a well-known company that considered building a high-rise hotel attached to an indoor water park.

Mike Malik, a Detroit developer with connections to the Ilitch family, won a contract to develop the casino for Bay Mills. Malik, a native of Algonac, collects Chris-Craft and other antique boats. He talked of opening a museum to house his collection.

Meanwhile, the local rumor mill buzzed over reports that Malik might convince Mike and Marian Ilitch to build a three-rink hockey complex near the YMCA as a home for the International Silver Sticks.

This particular rumor also included talk of replacing McMorran Place with a minor-league ballpark for an unspecified Tigers' farm team. It would have been the hub of a downtown entertainment district.

How much of this was pie-in-the-sky nonsense is hard to know, because it all became moot when Detroit's now-disgraced mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, decided Port Huron could not have a casino.

He won the backing of the Detroit newspapers and political allies such as his mother, Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, the chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, and Rep. John Conyers, the influential chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

MGM Mirage and the Saginaw Chippewa also opposed letting Port Huron compete with two casinos across the river in Canada. They threw money at Congress with predictable results.

Kwame Inc. ultimately killed the governor's deal and left Acheson looking for a Plan B.

Fortunately, time is on his side. Unlike the typical developer, who must recover an investment without dawdling, Acheson has the luxury of waiting for better times.

His luck may be turning, too...

There are other reasons for optimism, too.

The governor, who was embarrassed by the Kilpatricks at last year's congressional hearing on the casino, has new influence in Washington because of her friendship with President-elect Obama. The casino may not be as dead as its opponents hope...

Ilitch issues statement following Mayor's guilty plea

In light of the political scandal and guilty pleadings surrounding Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, Christopher Ilitch, CEO of Ilitch Holdings, Inc. issued the following statement:

DETROIT, Sept 04, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- "This has been a difficult time for the city, region and state, and I'm hopeful that attention can return to addressing the important work at hand. History has shown we are a caring and hearty community, not easily deterred, and I believe that bodes well for our collective future. I am confident we can -- and will -- persevere and continuously improve to make this a better place for all."

About Ilitch Holdings, Inc.
Ilitch Holdings, Inc. provides professional services to the companies owned by Michael and/or Marian Ilitch. The Ilitch companies in the food, sports and etertainment industries include: Little Caesars Pizza, Blue Line Foodservice Distribution, the Detroit Red Wings, Olympia Entertainment, Olympia Development, Little Caesars Pizza Kits Fundraising Program, Champion Foods and Uptown Entertainment. Michael Ilitch owns the Detroit Tigers. Marian Ilitch owns the MotorCity Casino Hotel.

SOURCE: Ilitch Holdings, Inc.

Op-Ed: Clash over Indian casinos

2.17.08

Clash over Indian casinos

BY GEORGE WEEKS
Syndicated Columnist

The quest on Capitol Hill by two Upper Peninsula tribes to gain downstate land for casinos is grandly described by the Washington Post as "a fierce multimillion lobbying battle of a scale not seen since fall of Jack Abramoff" -- imprisoned defrauder of American Indians and others.

But U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee, whose district includes homelands of two of the combatants -- the Bay Mills Indian Community and the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians -- calls the description "highly overstated." In a phone interview, he said the legislation, approved by the House Natural Resources Committee last week, is not so much a "titanic battle" on the national scene as it is "a Michigan delegation food fight" among members "trying to protect their own turf."

Two top delegation titans are on opposite sides of the legislation that would settle century-old land claims by allowing casinos in Romulus and Port Huron in exchange for the settling of 110 acres of land claims around Charlotte Beach in the Upper Peninsula.

House Dean John Dingell, D-Dearborn, powerful chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee and mentor of Stupak, who heads the committee's high-visibility Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee is in favor of the legislation. Dingell, whose district includes Romulus, insists that the issue is about a legitimate land claim.

Among those allied with Democrats Stupak and Dingell on this issue is Rep. Candice Miller, R-Macomb County, who represents Port Huron. (Now a faint blip on the crystal ball, but Miller and Stupak are potential opposing contenders for governor in 2010.)

In committee testimony on the legislation earlier this month, Miller said: "Much of the opposition is based purely on greed. Now that the city of Detroit has theirs, they don't want anyone else to have one."

Against the legislation is House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr., D-Detroit, who's allied with the Congressional Black Caucus and beleaguered Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick of Detroit, site of three commercial casinos.

The Interior Department opposes the legislation, saying it would circumvent its role in reviewing gambling compacts between tribes and the states.

Quite possibly the opponent to be most feared by supporters of the legislation is Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid, D-Nev., whose Las Vegas constituents include gaming managers with big stakes in Detroit casinos. Michigan Sens. Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow support the legislation.

This is more than an intramural Michigan food fight. Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Flint, who supports the legislation and is co-chairman of the Congressional Native American Caucus, said in the Washington Post: "It'll be a real lobbying effort on both sides. Whenever you combine gaming and money to be made, you find a lot of people interested who were never interested in Indians before." The Post said: "The two sides have accused one another of the sort of tactics Abramoff's lobbying team made famous, including creating front groups to gin up anti-gambling sentiment. Opponents charge that the tribes' legal position rests on a sham land purchase secretly engineered by one of the casino developers.

"Michael Malik, developer of one of the proposed casinos, is a business partner of Marian Ilitch, whose family owns a casino, hockey's Detroit Red Wings and baseball's Detroit Tigers. Ilitch and their family members have given $393,000 to members of Congress in the past two election cycles. On the other side, MGM Mirage is the biggest contributor to members of Congress, giving $1.4 million in the past two cycles." The paper said the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, which operates the Soaring Eagle Casino in Mt. Pleasant, "and sees the legislation as a threat to its business, has given $394,000." Also at play here, as it has been through the ages, is whether deals made will be deals kept. The state made a deal on this with the tribes in 2002, but the feds have the final word on this.

Powerful battle rages in Congress over Casino plans

2.14.07

Casino Battle Rages in Congress
Interests Clash as Mich. Tribes Pursue Land off Reservations

By Susan Schmidt
Washington Post Staff Writer

An unusual effort by several powerful congressmen to clear the way for two Indian casinos in Michigan is fueling a fierce multimillion-dollar lobbying battle of a scale not seen since the fall of Jack Abramoff.

More than a dozen lobbying firms have joined the fray on both sides, representing Indian tribes, well-connected Michigan developers and the Las Vegas-based gambling company MGM Mirage. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions have flowed to members of Congress considering bills that would allow the tribes to build casinos in populated areas away from their reservations. The bills pit senior Democrats against one another -- among them three House committee chairmen, leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus and Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.).

Yesterday, legislation that would allow the casinos sailed through the House Natural Resources Committee, clearing a hurdle that portends only more furious advocacy.

"It'll be a real lobbying effort on both sides," predicted Rep. Dale E. Kildee (D-Mich.), a bill supporter and co-chairman of the Congressional Native American Caucus. "Whenever you combine gaming and money to be made, you find a lot of people interested who were never interested in Indians before."

The legislation would settle century-old land claims lodged by the Bay Mills Indian Community and the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe. Land swaps would give the tribes properties desirable as casino locales, one near Detroit, the other in Port Huron, on the Canadian border. State and local governments would gain a share of the revenues.

The tribes and their development partners argue that the casinos would bring thousands of jobs to a state battered by foreclosures and auto industry layoffs. Opponents say the legislation amounts to a precedent-setting backdoor way for tribes to build casinos on land outside their reservations. The legislation circumvents the Interior Department, which opposes it.

The key House backer of the tribes' bid is Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee. He is squared off against other powerful Michigan Democrats, including Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr., leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus and Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who say the casinos will glut the already saturated Detroit area gambling market. There are three commercial casinos in Detroit and 17 others around the state owned by tribes.

"Much of the opposition is based purely on greed," Rep. Candice S. Miller (R-Mich.) argued in a committee hearing on the casinos last week. "Now that the city of Detroit has theirs, they don't want anyone else to have one."

The two sides have accused one another of the sort of tactics Abramoff's lobbying team made famous, including creating front groups to gin up anti-gambling sentiment. Opponents charge that the tribes' legal position rests on a sham land purchase secretly engineered by one of the casino developers.

Michael Malik, developer of one of the proposed casinos, is a business partner of Marian Ilitch, whose family owns a casino, hockey's Detroit Red Wings and baseball's Detroit Tigers. Malik, Ilitch and their family members have given $393,000 to members of Congress in the past two election cycles. On the other side, MGM Mirage is the biggest contributor to members of Congress, giving $1.4 million in the past two cycles. The Saginaw Chippewa tribe, which operates a casino and sees the legislation as a threat to its business, has given $394,000.

At last week's hearing on the bills for the two tribes, Dingell insisted that the legislation is not about off-reservation gambling, but about a legitimate land claim.

But Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.) said, "Make no mistake -- these bills are Indian gaming bills and other tribes will ask for the same." Yesterday her colleague Rep. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) saw his amendment to strip the bills of their gambling provisions go down to resounding defeat. "Dingell is very powerful," Heller said afterward.

Heller, Reid and other Nevada representatives are protective of the prerogatives of casino management companies there, including MGM Mirage, which just built an $800 million casino in Detroit.

Reid is strongly opposed to the casino legislation, but Michigan's Democratic senators, Debbie Stabenow and Carl M. Levin, support it.

The Interior Department opposes the legislation because if Congress acts, the agency would not be able to assess the impact of the land-claim settlement on the environment or on other tribes. It also would circumvent the department's role in reviewing gambling compacts between tribes and the states. "It may provide a road map for others to follow," Carl Artman, assistant interior secretary for Indian affairs, told the committee.

Research director Lucy Shackelford contributed to this report.

Local labor leader has been behind Port Huron casino schemes for 15 years

2.10.08

Labor leader sees casino as Port Huron’s best bet

By MIKE CONNELL
Times Herald

If a casino does open in Port Huron, and the odds look about as long as drawing for an inside straight, they should put a bronze bust of Dick Cummings in the lobby.

Cummings is president of the Michigan Machinists, a former leader of the county AFL-CIO and a tireless laborer in the vineyards of the United Way of St. Clair County. He’s also a founding father of the effort to bring a casino to Michigan’s easternmost city.

Fifteen years ago, he supported the campaign to put a gambling den in the downtown Sears building, left empty in 1989 when the retailer shuffled off to Birchwood Mall. That effort failed on July 13, 1993, when city voters rejected it, 5,120 to 4,751.

Seven years later, Cummings and Don Reynolds, owner of the Thomas Edison Inn, led a second campaign. They launched it a few weeks after the Point Edward casino opened directly across the St. Clair River, maybe a 3-wood from the inn’s front lawn.

Many people who opposed the casino in 1993, and I count myself among them, had changed their minds by 2000. The folks feeding the slots in Point Edward didn’t exactly look like gangsters and degenerates. In fact, they looked a lot like us.

That’s because they were, of course. Then and now, the majority of visitors to Point Edward and Hiawatha Slots were middle-class Michiganders out for dinner and a giggle. No harm. No foul. No fear.

In the summer of 2001, a second casino advisory vote won approval, 3,111 to 2,628.

■ For 6½ years, Cummings has been a warrior for the casino. It’s a crusade, a jihad, a holy war of sorts.

His quest begins and ends with jobs. Early on, he won a promise from the casino developers that they would hire locally and pay union wages.

Port Huron’s unemployment rate has been in double digits for most of the Bush presidency. This past Christmas, one of every seven workers in the city was jobless. In rough numbers, the local unemployment rate is double the state average and triple the national average.

So much for statistics. From his office at the United Way, Cummings has seen the suffering behind those numbers. He can tell you of mothers who go hungry so their babies can eat, and of fathers who put off medical care until the ambulance arrives. He can tell you of desperation and despair, heartbreak and horror, homelessness and hopelessness.

He can slice through your heart with nothing sharper than the truth, and bring you to your knees with nothing heavier than a prayer.

“Most people don’t want a handout,” he says. “They want a job.”

Amen, Dick. Amen.

■ Year after year, the economy worsens, the jobs disappear and our government does the one thing it does best.

Nothing.

Speeches we’ve heard, all sass and sanctimony. Games we’ve watched, ruses and ploys. What we’ve heard isn’t too hopeful. What we’ve seen isn’t much progress. After 6½ years, a Port Huron casino bill has yet to earn a vote from a congressional committee, although that may change this week.

What hasn’t changed is the strength of the opposition.

In 2002, it was Nevada’s Harry Reid, now the most powerful individual on Capitol Hill, who put the kibosh on Debbie Stabenow’s bill in the Senate. A series of bills in the House have been shot down by influential Republicans, including Brighton’s Mike Rogers and the shameless Tom Delay, self-styled czar of K Street.

The fact that Jack Abramoff was paid $14 million and change to nuke the Port Huron bill, among other chores, may or may not be relevant. You decide.

The good news is Abramoff has gone away for a spell — five years and 10 months without a show of good behavior. The bad news is his old clients had no problem buying new help. In the past week, Port Huron’s opponents have launched a couple of advertising campaigns that smell worse than Chemical Valley in an east wind.

In the wake of the Abramoff scandal, one would think our representatives in Washington could see through such blatant deceit and manipulation. If they can’t, then God help us, because no one else will.

■ Last week, Cummings hopped over to Washington to watch the House Natural Resources Committee debate the Stupak-Miller bill.

“I think it went well,” he said on his return, “even though Detroit was there in full force.”

The casino’s most intractable opponents begin with Kwame and his Mommy — Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, leader of the influential Congressional Black Caucus.

The Saginaw Chippewa, who made Abramoff a multi-millionaire, continue to bankroll the opposition. So does MGM Mirage, the gambling empire built by Kirk Kerkorian, who’s 90 and has amassed a billion dollars for each of his nine decades.

In one way or another, most of the players have money riding on the outcome.

Many of the supporters have received generous campaign contributions from casino promoter Mike Malik and his good friends, the Ilitch family. Most of the opponents have profited from knowing the fine people at MGM, which owns the most profitable of Detroit’s three casinos, and the Saginaw Chippewa, owner of the most profitable of Michigan’s 20 casinos.

■ If I were a betting man — and anything more than 10 minutes at a slot machine is my idea of purgatory — I’d say the odds of Dick Cummings seeing himself in bronze are slim.

Approval from the 49-member Natural Resources Committee is anything but certain, and that’s only the first of many hurdles. On the floor of the House, the measure would not receive a vote without the blessings of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, the majority leader, who are more than a little concerned at the threat to Democratic solidarity, an oxymoron even in the best of times.

Should the measure win approval in the House, a companion bill would need to wend its way through the Senate and Harry Reid’s tender mercies. And even then, legal challenges are all but promised by Detroiters who believe that if their city loses even one dollar to Port Huron, it is one dollar too many.

For all this, Cummings sounded optimistic Friday when we chatted. His belief is that Port Huron has facts on its side while what the opposition mostly has is greed.

“Hopefully, it gets to the House floor and gets thoroughly debated,” he said. “Detroit is ganging up on us, but facts are facts. People with more common sense are seeing through the smoke.”

And what about the Senate?

“I think we’re going to get there,” he said. “Senator (Carl) Levin and Senator (Debbie) Stabenow are in full support, and so is the governor. I think we’ll get a fair hearing.”

It almost seems too much to ask.

Columnist Mike Connell can be reached at (810) 989-6259 or mconnell@gannett.com.

Criminal concerns, investigations called for at Congressional hearing on Michigan off-reservation casinos

excerpted from a story posted 2.10.08 by the Port Huron Times Herald:

Criminal concerns
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his mother, Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Detroit, chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, were among those who testified against the bills. They argued that casinos in Romulus and Port Huron would threaten the profitability of Detroit’s three casinos at a cost of jobs and city revenues.

It was the embattled mayor’s first appearance on Capitol Hill in the two weeks since the text-and-sex scandal broke. He appeared at ease, and his mother gave him rave reviews.

“Brilliant as always, son,” she said just before the mayor left to catch his plane. “Now go do your job.”

As the 3fi-hour hearing closed, Rep. Kilpatrick raised questions about the legality of the legislation and cautioned her colleagues: “We don’t want to be party to anything criminal.”

Tomion scoffed at the notion of illegality.

He noted the committee’s senior members — Rahall, Young and Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Flint — are leading experts on Indian law. All three support the legislation.

“The leadership of the committee is very aware of what the laws are,” Tomion said. “I don’t think that argument had any impact with them at all. … To a certain extent, the tactics of the opponents are hurting them. It’s become pretty clear that greed is the primary motivation of our opponents.”

Inquiry being sought
Mike Malik, a former Algonac councilman and a promoter of the Port Huron casino, noted the bills involve land-settlement claims drafted by a Republican governor in 2002 and amended by a Democratic governor in 2007.

“John Engler is a lawyer and signed this agreement. Our current governor, Jennifer Granholm, is a lawyer and was the attorney general of this state,” Malik said. “For someone to even suggest these are illegal documents is ludicrous.”

Fred Cantu, the chief of the Saginaw Chippewa, indicated he would ask the Interior Department to investigate the Engler-Granholm deals for possible fraud.

Malik said federal investigators might do better to look at the tactics of the lobbyists and public-relations specialists employed by the Saginaw Chippewa and MGM Mirage. He recalled how the Saginaw Chippewa paid more than $14 million to Jack Abramoff, a disgraced Republican lobbyist who worked to kill earlier Port Huron casino bills.

Abramoff is now in prison, but Malik accused opponents of using “Abramoff-like tactics. … They’re spending millions of dollars and spilling all this misinformation and garbage to make it look like this is not legitimate and to confuse the issue.”

He said casino supporters are working to provide committee members with facts.

“If people truly read the information and truly follow the law, there is no way not to support this,” he said. “If they’ll see through the lies and the garbage, the true legal facts speak for themselves.” (Full Story)

"Big Guns" come out to battle on Capitol Hill over off-reservation casinos in Michigan

2.07.08

Big guns join casino battle
Flint emerges as clear option to Romulus

By MIKE CONNELL
Times Herald

The long-stalled proposal for a Port Huron casino led to a 3½-hour sparring match Wednesday between several Capitol Hill heavyweights.

"We are not asking for off-reservation gambling, we are simply asking for the settlement of land claims legitimately made by our governor and the tribes," argued Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn, the dean of the House and the sponsor of one of the two bills under debate.

"Congress has never passed a gaming compact," countered Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Detroit, chairwoman of the influential Congressional Black Caucus and mother of Detroit's mayor.

The two bills, one introduced by Dingell and the other by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee, are meant to settle a land dispute dating to the 1850s.

Stupak's bill would provide the Bay Mills Chippewa with land in Port Huron in exchange for giving up its claim to 110 acres at Charlotte Beach in the Upper Peninsula. Dingell's bill offers the Sault Chippewa, which also has a Charlotte Beach claim, a casino site in either Flint or Romulus.

The political wrangling - seven members of Congress spoke in support of the bills and seven spoke against it - was hardly the day's only highlight. Among other headlines:

Detroit's embattled mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, made his first appearance on Capitol Hill in the two weeks since the text-and-sex scandal erupted.

With his mom looking on, he seemed at ease. "We're pitting Port Huron against Romulus against Detroit," he testified. "There aren't new gamers coming into the city of Detroit. ... Another casino in the mix will only hurt the vitality of all these casinos."

Flint emerged as a clear alternative to Romulus as the location for a Sault Chippewa casino.
Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Flint, an expert on Indian law and earlier a vigorous opponent of the land deals, threw his support behind the bills. "I have to consider the economic realities of my hometown," he explained, and he proceeded to skewer most of the legal objections raised by opponents of the measure.

The chief of the Saginaw Chippewa, which has joined MGM Mirage in financing the campaign to block the two casinos, tossed out a bombshell in the hearing's final minutes.
Chief Fred Cantu said he suspects the Charlotte Beach land claims were "a scam from the outset." He said he will ask the Department of Interior to investigate allegations of fraud.

The 49-member committee could vote on the two bills as early as next Wednesday, but Rep. Kilpatrick closed the hearing with an appeal for a postponement.

"We don't want to be party to anything criminal," she said. "I would just implore the committee to look further into the matter."

Miller speaks out
It wouldn't be the first such delay. The original Port Huron casino bill was introduced 5½ years ago by former Rep. David Bonior. He gave up his seat to run for governor in 2002, but the casino banner was picked up by his successor, Rep. Candice Miller, R-Harrison Township.
She made a passionate appeal Wednesday, saying: "Port Huron is a beautiful city, a proud city, which has fallen on extremely difficult economic times."

Miller noted there are gaming facilities across the river in Point Edward and Sarnia, "where 80% of their revenue is from Americans." She observed how every elected official who represents Port Huron supports the casino.

"We are not asking for a handout," the congresswoman said. "We are simply asking for fairness, and for an opportunity."

Disgraceful tactics
Miller and Dingell also criticized casino opponents, who they said have hired public-relations consultants to set up shell companies to attack the bills.

Gambling Watch, incorporated in mid-January by Republican consultant Lori Wortz of Lansing, has used mass mailing to attack the casinos as a threat to Michigan families. Wortz counts MGM Mirage among her clients.

Americans for Gaming Reform, created three weeks ago by Democratic consultant Peter Ragone of California, has launched a radio blitz in Detroit and bought full-page ads in Washington. He has declined to identify his financial backers.

"Much of the opposition is based upon greed," Miller said.

She and Dingell both likened the tactics to those used by Jack Abramoff, the disgraced Republican lobbyist who helped block earlier Port Huron casino bills while being paid more than $14 million by the Saginaw Chippewa.


Mike Connell can be reached at (810) 989-6259 or mconnell@gannett.com.

Detroit's Mayor testifies against off-reservation casino bills

2.07.08

Kilpatrick criticizes bill on casinos
Mayor says having sites in Romulus, Port Huron would hurt Detroit

By TODD SPANGLER
FREE PRESS WASHINGTON STAFF

WASHINGTON -- Saying legislation that would allow for Indian casinos in Romulus and Port Huron is pitting some of Michigan's neediest cities against each other and Detroit, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick asked a congressional committee Wednesday to turn it back.

It was the first Capitol Hill appearance for Kilpatrick since the Free Press reported two weeks ago on thousands of text messages that revealed an affair between the Detroit mayor and his former chief of staff -- a relationship both denied under oath during a court case last summer.

During his testimony before the House Natural Resources Committee, Kilpatrick seemed at ease, defending his city from incursions he said no one should doubt would hurt Detroit's three casinos.

"We're pitting Port Huron against Romulus against Detroit," he told the committee, with his mother, Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, looking on.

While Kwame Kilpatrick, his mother and another Detroit Democrat, Rep. John Conyers, opposed the measure, it had its supporters -- including Rep. Candice Miller, a Harrison Township Republican whose district includes Port Huron, and Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn, whose district includes Romulus.

Dingell said he has studies to prove that a casino in Romulus will help Wayne County. Port Huron, meanwhile, has an unemployment rate three times the national average and a Canadian casino just across the St. Clair River.

At issue are 2002 settlements signed by then-Gov. John Engler with the Bay Mills and Sault Ste. Marie Chippewa tribes. In exchange for dropping long-standing claims to land in the Upper Peninsula, the tribes would get land for the casinos.

MGM Grand Detroit casino is opposed to the legislation. But Detroit's other two casinos are either in favor or silent. Marian Ilitch, who owns MotorCity Casino, is a partner in other ventures with Michael Malik, who wants to develop Port Huron's casino for the Bay Mills tribe. The Sault Ste. Marie tribe wants to open the Romulus facility while still running Greektown Casino.

"Much of the opposition is based upon greed," Miller said.

The House committee is expected to make any changes to the bill next week and then move it, though whether it gets a floor vote is iffy. The position of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California is unknown, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is opposed.

Contact TODD SPANGLER at 202-906-8203 or at tspangler@freepress.com.

Michigan delegation divided over off-reservation casinos

2.06.08

Hearing for 2 new Mich. casinos divides crowd
Some fear Detroit will be hurt, others seek job creation

By TODD SPANGLER
FREE PRESS WASHINGTON STAFF

WASHINGTON -- A proposal to allow two new Indian casinos in Michigan -- one in Romulus and one in Port Huron -- split the Michigan delegation in a congressional hearing today, with Detroit's representatives set against an idea they believe could hurt the city.

The hearing before the House Natural Resources Committee, which oversees American Indian affairs, attracted a wide range of witnesses, including much of the congressional delegation, officials from the tribes themselves and embattled Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

In his prepared remarks, the mayor said: "Clearly, this legislation would severely harm our city's ability to rebuild and revitalize. We have made great strides and will continue to do so. The investments and the revenues from our three hard-fought-after casinos are paramount to these efforts."

His mother, Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick, and Rep. John Conyers, both Detroit Democrats, argued against the bills, saying they allow for off-reservation gambling in violation of state and federal laws and will damage competition in Detroit's casinos.

But others, including Rep. John Dingell, the longest-serving active member of the House, support the proposals, saying they are needed to create jobs in his district, which includes Romulus.

In his prepared remarks, the Dearborn Democrat said the Romulus project will bring 2,700 "well-paying, on-site union jobs" to the area, not to mention construction jobs.

He also noted the legislation would settle land claims brought by the Bay Mills Indian Community, which wants to build a casino in Port Huron, and the Sault Ste Marie Tribe of Chippewa, which would build the new casino near the Detroit airport in Romulus.

The hearing was expected to last for several hours with a long list of witnesses.

UPDATED: Details posted for House Natural Resources Hearing on Michigan off-reservation casino schemes

The House Natural Resources Committee, led by Chairman Nick J. Rahall (D-WV), will hold a legislative hearing on the following bills:

H.R. 2176 (Stupak): To provide for and approve the settlement of certain land claims of the Bay Mills Indian Community.

H.R. 4115 (Dingell): To provide for and approve the settlement of certain land claims of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.

Subject:
House Natural Resources Committee
Legislative Hearing on H.R. 2176 and H.R. 4115

When:
Wednesday, February 6, 2008, at 2:00 p.m.

Where:
Room 1324 Longworth House Office Building

Witnesses:
The Honorable John D. Dingell (D-MI)
The Honorable Bart Stupak (D-MI)
The Honorable Carolyn C. Kilpatrick (D-MI)
The Honorable Mike Rogers (R-MI)
The Honorable Candice S. Miller (R-MI)
The Honorable Shelley Berkley (D-NV)
The Honorable John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) added
The Honorable Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS) added

Panel 1
The Honorable Carl Artman, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Indian Affairs, United States Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C.

Panel 2
The Honorable Jeffrey D. Parker, President of Executive Council, Bay Mills Indian Community, Brimley, MI
The Honorable Aaron Payment, Chairman, Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Sault Ste. Marie, MI
The Honorable Alan R. Lambert, Mayor, City of Romulus
The Honorable B. Mark Neal, Mayor, City of Port Huron deleted

Mr. Karl Tomion, City Manager, City of Port Huron, MI added

Panel 3
The Honorable Kwame Kilpatrick, Mayor, City of Detroit
The Honorable Fred Cantu, Chief, Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, Mt. Pleasant, MI
Mr. Joe Conroy, Director of Government Operations, City of Flint, Flint, MI


The hearing will be webcast live on the Committee's Web site at http://resourcescommittee.house.gov.

originally posted 2.05.08; 8:05 AM

"Gambling Watch" launches campaign against off-reservation casinos in Michigan

2.05.08

Casino foe mailings scrutinized
Miller calls foul over highly organized opposition campaign

By MIKE CONNELL
Times Herald

Directing its appeal to "Michigan families," a newly incorporated organization has launched a direct-mail campaign aimed at blocking proposed casinos in Port Huron and Romulus.

There is a twist, however.

The organization - Gambling Watch - isn't a grassroots anti-gambling group opposed to casinos on moral or ethical grounds. In fact, it's a corporation created just two weeks ago by a Lansing public-relations specialist whose clients include MGM Mirage, a giant in the gambling industry and a fierce opponent of the two casinos.

"This was put together by a very well known, highly paid political consultant who has worked for other casino interests, other gaming projects in Michigan," said Rep. Candice Miller, R-Harrison Township, whose district encompasses Port Huron. "Spare me the righteous indignation."

Gambling Watch was incorporated on Jan. 18, according to the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth. The legal paperwork was handled by a lawyer with Dickinson Wright, a Lansing law firm that counts MGM Mirage among its clients.

Gambling Watch's resident agent is Lori Wortz, the chief operating officer of Sterling Corp., a Lansing public-relations firm that specializes in ballot proposals and public-policy issues.

Conservative activist
Wortz is well-known in conservative political circles. She oversaw Pat Robertson's 1988 presidential campaign in Michigan and later worked for the Republican National Committee. Last month, she helped guide Mitt Romney's campaign to a primary victory in his native state.

In a telephone interview, Wortz acknowledged her work with MGM Mirage but said Gambling Watch was strictly her initiative.

"They're supportive of it," she said of MGM, "but there are other people who support it, too."

MGM Mirage, based in Las Vegas, has annual revenues in excess of $7 billion. Its majority owner is Kirk Kerkorian, 90, whose personal fortune was estimated at more than $9 billion last year by Forbes magazine. According to federal disclosure forms, MGM spent at least $160,000 in the first half of 2007 to lobby against a Port Huron casino.

The people spoke
Wortz recalled campaigning for a 2004 ballot initiative that amended the state constitution to require voter approval of any expansion of gambling in Michigan. The measure was aimed at so-called "racinos," or the legalization of slot machines at seven horse tracks in southern Michigan.

MGM Mirage, which has invested more than $800 million in a casino-hotel in Detroit, and the Saginaw Chippewa, which runs the state's largest casino in Mount Pleasant, did not want competition from race tracks. They poured money into the campaign for the 2004 proposal, which passed easily.

Wortz said the voters spoke clearly, which is why she believes it would be wrong to allow casinos in Port Huron and Romulus without a statewide referendum.

"What I feel and many others feel is that it's important for voters to be aware that this is about expansion of gambling," she said. "Any expansion in the state should go to the voters."

Families on alert
Gambling Watch has shared that message in fliers mailed to households across the state. The flier carries a large headline: "Michigan Family Alert." A smaller headline adds: "Washington Poised to Force Two New Casinos on Michigan Families. Only You Can Stop the Special Interests."

The flier mentions Wednesday's congressional hearing and calls on people to contact five politicians - Sen. Carl Levin, D-Detroit; Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing; Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn; Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee; and Miller.

It says the five "can put a stop to this special interest attempt to add two more casinos to the 22 Michigan already has."

Dingell and Stupak introduced the two bills that will be debated at Wednesday's hearing. Levin and Stabenow have expressed support for a Port Huron casino.

Fair play, free trade
For the five years she has been in office, Miller has been steadfast in her support of a Port Huron casino, describing it as a matter of fair play and free trade.

She noted Port Huron is the only American border community that has not been allowed to compete for the jobs and tax revenues generated by casinos on the Canadian side.

She expressed frustration with Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his refusal to reach out to Port Huron.

"I remember when he was saying we had to support casinos in Detroit so his city could compete for all the American dollars going to the casino in Windsor," she said. "And he was right, just as it's only right to let Port Huron compete for all of the American dollars going to Point Edward and Sarnia."

Miller also observed that Port Huron's entire political delegation - local, state and national - supports the casino.

She said her office has received "upwards of 500 phone calls in the last week" from people responding to Gambling Watch's mailer. Little if any of that opposition was coming from St. Clair County, she added, "and we're certainly not getting any from Port Huron."

Nick Choate, an aide to Stupak, said his office also has been getting calls. "I don't have an exact number. We are getting a few," he said. "I wouldn't say the phones are ringing off the hook."

Choate said he was unaware of Gambling Watch's origins.

Deceptive tactics
For her part, Miller clearly wasn't amused to learn of the ties to a public-relations agency and a law firm that represent MGM Mirage.

"When my staff first told me about these fliers, I said 'I can tell you right now who's behind this,'" she recalled. "Who would pay for a mailing like this? It had to be other casino interests. This thing is about money."

She said people who oppose gambling for reasons of conscious were being manipulated by special interests with hidden motives.

"Have you heard of Jack Abramoff?" Miller asked, naming the corrupt lobbyist who is serving a federal prison sentence for fraud, conspiracy and tax evasion. "These people who put this flier out have taken a page right out of the Abramoff playbook. These are exactly the kind of tactics he would do for his clients. It's a very deceptive thing."

Miller is scheduled to testify at Wednesday's hearing, which focuses on bills introduced by Stupak and Dingell. She also said the 48-member committee is not expected to vote on the measures until later this month.

If the committee approves the bills, they would go to the full House for its consideration. Companion legislation has not yet been introduced in the Senate.

Witnesses set to testify at congressional hearing on off-reservation casinos proposed in Michigan

2.04.08

Kilpatrick to testify against Indian casinos

David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick will testify before the House Natural Resources Committee here Wednesday to oppose a bill to allow Indian casinos in Romulus and Port Huron, the committee announced Monday.

Two bills in Congress would allow Indian-run casinos to directly compete with Detroit's three casinos. Five Michigan lawmakers will testify on both sides of the issue.

Kilpatrick's mother, Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick, D-Detroit, will testify in opposition as well, while three other Michigan lawmakers will support the proposed new casinos.

The event will mark Mayor Kilpatrick's first appearance outside Michigan since his public apology over the release of text messages suggesting he wasn't truthful when he denied having an affair with his then-chief of staff, Christine Beatty, in a civil lawsuit. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy is investigating whether the mayor or Beatty committed perjury.

Also testifying Wednesday at the House hearing are Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn, chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee and Bart Stupak, D-Menominee, who supports locating a casino in Romulus in Port Huron, and two Republicans, Rep. Mike Rogers of Brighton and Candice Miller of Harrison Township.

Miller supports the plan to locate a casino in Port Huron, while Rogers opposes the new casinos and wants an assessment of the economic impact of two casinos on Metro Detroit before they are approved.

"These are not going to be a net winner," Rogers said Monday.

Jeff Parker, president of the executive council of the Bay Mills Indian Community in Brimley, Mich., and Aaron Payment, chairman, Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., are going to testify.

The two bills being considered would allow two new casinos in Port Huron and Romulus in exchange for resolving land claims around Charlotte Beach in the Upper Peninsula.

Also testifying at Wednesday's hearing are the mayors of Romulus, Alan R. Lambert; and Mark Neal, of Port Huron; along with Joe Conroy, director of government operations for the city of Flint.

You can reach David Shepardson at (202) 662 - 8735 or dshepardson@detnews.com.

Find this article at: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080204/METRO/802040455

Taxpayers & secret slush fund financing Detroit Mayor's high flying lifestyle

originally posted 05.17.07 by Judicial Watch at CorruptionChronicles.com

Detroit Mayor Has Nonprofit Slush Fund

A secret nonprofit created by Detroit’s controversial mayor to supposedly conduct voter education and community improvements paid almost $9,000 for his stay at a lavish California resort.

Created by Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, the Kilpatrick Civic Fund was established as a tax-exempt organization to pay for voter education and other civic-minded activities. The fund gets about half a million dollars annually, donors’ identities are not always made public and lots of the money comes from organized labor as “political contributions.”

The mayor evidently uses a lot of the cash as his personal slush fund. Just recently, the nonprofit picked up the $8,600 tab for two rooms at a world-famous California spa and resort called La Costa. Kilpatrick, his wife and kids and a nanny evidently were on a crucial west-coast fundraising trip.

The mayor says his so-called nonprofit, which is operated by his sister, regularly pays his hefty travel and lodging fees. Many politicians are beginning to use such nonprofits as a way to circumvent laws that limit giving to political campaigns.

But there is no place in government for a secretive fund that raises money from special interests and can be loosely spent, according to a Detroit newspaper editorial that calls for the dismantling of Kilpatrick’s fund. It goes on to point out that this is not the first time Kilpatrick is under a cloud of suspicion for not drawing a sharp line between spending on public duties and spending on personal luxuries.

Indeed, the mayor of a poor and struggling U.S. city has expensive taste that is often financed by taxpayers. During the first 33 months of his term, Kilpatrick charged more than $210,000 on his city-issued credit card for travel, meals and entertainment. He also used $25,000 of city funds to lease a fancy sports utility vehicle for his wife at a time when Detroit’s $230 million budget deficit forced him to eliminate 3,000 city jobs and cut bus service.

The scandals and subsequent sharp decline in approval ratings led a major news magazine to list Kilpatrick as one of the worst big-city mayors in the United States. The mayor responded with a controversial advertisement comparing the media criticism of him to violent lynch mobs.